Variant #1

While I was not a huge fan when I started reading Variant, I loved it by the end. Many of the things that I didn’t like in the beginning were cleared up as the novel progressed, and character choices that seemed inorganic started to make sense the more I read the novel.

Benson Fisher has bounced from foster home to foster home for as long as he can remember, holding down meager jobs and friendless, after all, how can you make friends when every few months he has to move and can’t afford a cell phone or a laptop to keep in touch. But Benson has hope, he just was accepted into the prestigious Maxfield Academy on a full scholarship. The school has a full-ride program for orphaned and foster homed children and Benson was the candidate that they chose. Benson believes that this is the answer to his prayers, a permanent place to stay until he graduates, a good college, and friends. He has never been more wrong about something in his entire life.

Once at the school he finds that there are no adults; rather cameras and monitors, and a video every morning from a strange man telling them what to do. Everyday it is different, different classes that they have to teach themselves, crazy and violent paintball matches, weird PE classes, and that is just the beginning. Sometimes the doors lock on the students, forcing them to sleep outside in the cold with only a handful of sleeping bags for the entire populous. Other nights. Other times the man tells them to punish each other and send specific students to detention, no one has ever come back from detention. Anyone who has ever tried to run away has been killed, and it seems to Benson that no one even wants to try and escape the strange prison they are all being held in.

Every student was like Benson when they arrived, no family or friends to miss them, and the school knew it. Benson is determined to figure out what the purpose of the school is and escape, but talking about such things has put students in detention never to be seen again. The school is divided into gangs, and a few of them are tired of Benson poking his nose into business that isn’t his and decide to take him and his girlfriend out, even if it isn’t sanctioned by the school. That’s when things go from bad to worse.

Benson can barely walk after the beating his received, but Jane isn’t breathing. Benson is trying to get up and run for help when Jane suddenly sits up and starts making her way to a secret bunker near the school. Benson hobbles after her yelling to stop, but she doesn’t hear them. Once inside the bunker Jane does something crazy, she pulls off her ear and plugs a cord into it. Jane is a robot, and Benson watches as she downloads herself into a computer, 1s and 0s about him and the rest of the students at the school.

Now Benson doesn’t know what to do. Who would believe him about Jane, and more importantly who else is a robot. After all, Jane can’t be the only robot among them. Benson starts to make lists of when the students arrived, who has the most connection with the strange man in the videos, but if Jane who wanted to get out of the school, seemed to bleed when hurt, and who’s “heart” raced when they kissed, Benson doesn’t want to trust anybody. He needs to escape now more than ever, but to do so he has to have help, and he has to figure out who the robot spies are among them.

I really like this book by the end, things that didn’t always make sense in the beginning got cleared up and the story moved forward with excitement. I cannot wait to read the sequels!

TRUST NO ONE!

PANIC by Lauren Oliver

It’s a town where not much happens, where few people have jobs and even fewer people have the ability to get out of Carp. Boredom, drugs and drinking rule not just the adult world, but the adolescent world as well. That was what started it, the boredom and wanting to get out of the town, that is was fueled Panic. Panic was simple, in theory at least. Everyday for the entirety of everyone's senior year they had to give a dollar, and then whoever won Panic would get the money, usually around 50,000 dollars. That was more that enough to get out of Carp and never look back. The day after graduation, any graduating senior who wished to declare their entrance into the games would go to the top of the cliffs near the lake and jump. That, would be the easiest part of Panic. From there, every activity would get harder and harder, scarier and scarier. Every year, people died and ended up in the hospital, but the hope and possibilities that the money of winning Panic offered was more than enough to entice even the most chicken of 18 year olds to try. This year, the stakes were higher, and the money pot was greater with nearly 67,000 dollars going to this years winner. Heather had no real interest in the game, she thought it was stupid, but after her two best friends announce that they are getting out of Carp, heading to college and the possibility of a modeling career ahead of them, not to mention her boyfriend cheating on her in front of the entire Panic party kickoff, Heather jumps of the cliffs without thinking, hoping to escape her mundane future of waitressing in Carp. But things in the game of Panic are never as they seem. Her best friends start to lie and betray her in order to get ahead, the strange and mysterious Dodge is suddenly hanging around and "helping" when things get crazy, and someone is squealing to the cops about the game. People are being arrested, thrown in jail, hospitalized, and after one crazy and terrifying event... dead. Heather knows she should just withdraw, but her anger is fueling her more than she ever could have imagined, and she’s starting to think she just might win it, if she doesn’t end up dead. ''

Lying Game #1

I was a huge fan of the Lying Game TV show, and when it was cancelled (ABC Family always seems to cancel the best shows without a conclusion to them), I decided that that best thing for me to do was to get the entire series and read them, that way I could at least have some idea of what the writers of the show were using as their basis for plots. As of yet, I have only read the first novel, and it was decent. Obviously written for a middle school (or less) reader, but that doesn’t make the story any less intriguing.

Emma couldn’t believe it when her foster brother showed her a YouTube video of her doing unspeakable things, and after the viewing her foster family kicker her out. Freaked about the look alike, Emma went online to find the girl, what she found was more than a look alike, she found a twin sister, separated from birth. Excited beyond all reason Emma heads to Arizona to meet her sister, only her sister never shows. Everyone in town is calling her Sutton, her sister’s name. Emma keeps waiting for her sister to pop up and yell surprise, only she never does. That’s when Emma starts to get strange notes and emails, telling her to keep her mouth shut or they’ll kill her to.

Emma is scared, and trying to fit into the mold that her parents and friends expect of wealthy, well-to-do Sutton. She can’t tell anyone what is really happening, but one person realizes she isn’t Sutton. A boy from the wrong side of the tracks, who Sutton had a secret relationship with, knows that Emma isn’t who she ways she is. Emma enlists his help is trying to figure out what happened to her sister, but at what cost?

I loved the show, and at least as of book one, it seems to somewhat follow the shows first episodes of season one. The only thing that I don’t like about this book series so far *****SPOILER: is that Sutton appears to actually be dead, and is seeing through Emma’s eyes and provides a somewhat annoying commentary throughout the book.*****

I will defiantly continue this series, when I have more time. Some week when I have nothing to do and can plow through a novel a day.

Rebel Spring: a Falling Kingdoms novel

Rebel Spring picks up right where the previous novel Falling Kingdoms left off. The action of
this series is unmatched by most fantasy series. The author doesn’t shy away from death and emotion during the wars and rebellion, and the characters change with each event they come across. Things evolve quickly, keeping the action and humor alive every second I was reading. Just like in the first novel, there are four main characters that this novel follows.

First there is Cleo. After the attack on her kingdom, she was the only member of her family left alive, a pawn for The King of Blood to use to sway her people to believe his lies. Cleo is forced to marry the prince Magnum, a wedding that both parties find unfavorable. But Cleo has a secret, in her father’s dying breath he gives her a ring that has been passed down through the generations. A ring that once belonged to the sorceress Eva thousands of years ago. Cleo plays the part of the frightened princess, all the while trying to find the ancient crystals that she knows can help restore her kingdom.

Magnus isn’t any happier about the marriage to Cleo, but staying on his father’s good side is more beneficial. With his sister sick in bed, Magnus continues to become more and more ruthless and evil, just like his father. Magnus has become his father’s confidant, and knows that the road being built throughout all Mytica isn’t about unification, but about finding magic to take over the world and become immortal. As the novel goes on, Magnus’ devotion to his father and their cause starts to waiver, things are not always as they appear and when Magnus’ mother is believed to be killed by rebels, Magnus starts to believe that maybe his father isn’t telling him the whole truth and he should start looking into things himself.

After the attack on Cleo’s palace, Lucia has been in a coma like state for a majority of the first part of the novel. The magic she used continues to over power her, like a dark beast inside her wanting to destroy everything and everyone. Things are not better when she finally awakes. Lucia continues to try and fight, but it is a battle she is starting to lose. Even Lucia’s mother sees evil inside her daughter, and continues to poison her making her magic unusable. But the King has plans for his daughter, he believes her the prophesized reincarnation of the ancient sorcerous Eva, and wants to use her power to destroy everything. Lucia doesn’t want to succumb to the evil, but it is so tempting and the love of her father is enough to convince her to side with his dastardly plans.

Last among the man characters is Jonas. The first novel saw Jonas’ brother be killed, and after aligning with the King of Blood his people were murdered and betrayed. Now Jonas is leading the rebels against the King. But he needs a secret weapon, and just like in the previous novel he kidnaps Cleo. Things are different this time however, she is no longer against him, but somewhat supportive of his cause. After all, she doesn’t want to marry Magnus nor continue to watch her people suffer and die. Together they begin to hatch a plan, and Jonas begins to have feelings for the princess. Feelings that the other rebels don’t approve of, and think clouds his judgment. Now not only are the rebels fighting the King, but they are fighting amongst themselves over the best action to take and who should lead them.

I loved this novel even more than the first. I love the way magic is used and the myths that this novel draws on. The characters are relatable, and I love the interactions between them. Defiantly a 5 star novel.

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Em knows she has to kill him, she and Finn have been talking about it for months. In truth she has always known that it has to happen, but it was something she was trying to avoid. Em and Finn have gone back in time fourteen times according to the notes that Em keeps leaving herself, trying to change the future, to stop the Doctor from inventing the time machine that destroys the world, nothing has worked. All that has left is to kill the Doctor before he ever invents the machine.

            Em and Finn know that going back in time will change everything, that their current existence will blink away, but Em wants Marina, the young and innocent girl she used to be, to have the future she deserves. The mission back will mean the end of Em and Finn, but the hope that their past selves won’t have to go through a life hunted on the run, and tortured by the Doctor.

            This is the fourteenth version of Em and Finn that has gone back in time, but this will be the hardest time for them. They have to kill the doctor before he ever invents the formulas, and before he makes deals with secret sects of the government. Unfortunately, the Doctor is their childhood best friend. Em stopped calling him James the day he tortured and killed Luz, their childhood caregiver, trying to get Em to give up documents she had stolen. That was the day Em realized their really was no hope for him, and she and Finn had to find a way to stop the Doctor from destroying the world.

            Of course nothing is so simple when it comes to time travel, the Doctor is following them back himself this time, because he knows they are going to try and kill his past self. He has a plan too, to kill the young Marina and Finn long before they grow up to cause trouble for him and his project.

            There is a problem though, young Marina, Finn and James are still friends in the past, and their future selves are changing the past in ways they can’t imagine. Some good ways, and some bad ways, but things are unraveling and secrets from the future and being told. Secrets that not even Finn and Em knew are being shared with their past selves. Em knows that fixing the past means killing her old best friend and her childhood sweetheart, but can she actually pull the trigger? Especially with Marina there?

            I loved this book, I couldn’t put it down. I thought about it while I was at work and while playing Words With Friends. I texted my friends about it while I was reading it. It was an amazing book. I thought the way they handled time travel was amazing, I never questioned things that happened or got confused by the science-fiction part of the novel. I loved the characters, how real they seemed, I was pulling for Em and Finn the whole time, but understood her struggle to kill James. One of the cool parts of the story was how half of it took place from Em’s perspective and half took place from Marina’s. It showed that while both were in such different places in their lives, they were still the same person with the same thought process and loyalty. I think this is one of my favorite time-travel type books. While I know there is a sequel coming out, I am not sure I will read it. Only because this book as a stand alone is amazing.